ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AMERICA 235

Richard of the Lee. The king, however, is regarded as no foreigner,
and the straggle is more of classes than of races. For the rest, the
ballads of this cycle have little foundation in fact. As with the Cid
and Marko Kraljevic, the ballad-poets have created a type of hero
and of adventures, and the latter can be readily multiplied accord-
ing to pattern. The hero is distinguished by his sense of fair play.
He seeks a rough justice for all, including himself, and he takes the
readiest means to that end. His sense of humour is lively, if not
subtle. Robin Hood can take a beating without malice, and he does
not lose his power to impose respect. Apart from the particular
history of his feud with the sheriff and abbot concerning Sir
Richard's property, the episodes tend to repeat the tableau of good-
humoured cudgellings? and it is with one of the series that the
cycle is closed.

A notable feature of the English and Scottish ballads is the com-
plete absence of contact with the ancient Germanic epos. The only
complete example of that epos is the Saxon Beowulf, and Finnsburg
and Waldere are important fragments; Widsith is the completest
inventory. The existence of such documents must be due, in part,
to contact with the literate Romance area; but for the same reason
the traditional epics were the sooner eclipsed. In exchange for
these, English balladry includes some interesting Arthurian pieces:
The Boy and the Mantle, King Arthur and King Cornwall, The
Marriage of Sir Gawain (29-31). King Henry (32), a Scottish
ballad, is notable for its connexion with Celtic poetry on the one
side and Scandinavian on the other. It is a tale of the disenchant-
ment of a hag into a beautiful princess. That is the motif of The
Marriage of Sir Gawain, at the close, but also of the West High-
land tale of The Daughter of King Under-waves, and of the saga of
Hrolf Kraki. Disenchantment by a kiss is used in Kemp Qwyne
(34), which is associated with the saga of Hjdlmter ok Olver and
more remotely with Libeaus desconeils. In Denmark it is The Maid
in Dragon-form (DGF 59).

Other ballads of a semi-literary type are Hind Horn (17), and
The Ritchie Boy (252), modelled upon it. This is yet another varia-
tion on the theme of the wanderer's homecoming, of which the
Noble Moringer is the outstanding example. More literate forms
are the poetical romances of Horn et Rymenhild and Horn Child and
Maiden Rimnild. King John and the Bishop (45) is one of Burger's
sources. King Estmere, Sir Cawline, and Sir Lionet (60, 61, 18) are